My display 2014

[Gilrock]

Here's are videos for most of my songs this year.  I'm not real happy with several things in my display but I was rushing last minute.  I didn't really start seriously working on the pixel mega tree till mid November and the rgb's on the roofline were an after thought I did last minute a week ago.  So my sequencing is primarily old data that I copied onto the new elements except I did overlay some Nutcracker effects here and there.  Also I had different color icicles from top to bottom and a section out on the bottom I fixed this morning.  I don't really like the videos either cause the leds are saturating and the focus didn't look perfect but after several tries I wanted to at least get something done.  It was hard getting anything without cars getting in the way.

Let It Go
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ5ZB3_5X-A

Gangham Style
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SxmbsFZYVw

Amazing Grace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBKxjlQilfw

Reflections Of Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoU4qYlmC6E

Carol of the Bells
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWNYAEZP7is

Wizards of Winter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-c1eyrLT6k

Sandstorm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nO3adUTYQs

[jnealand]

Your Carol of the Bells has the music of TSO Christmas Eve Sarajevo.

[Gilrock]

Your Carol of the Bells has the music of TSO Christmas Eve Sarajevo.

I've seen it called "Carol of the Bells / Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)" in several places.  So I chose to call it by what they are playing and not by the day and location they played it....lol.  The 12 ribbon tree has a sequence from Brian at Superstar lights and that's what he calls it and you can look on iTunes and see a version from David Crowder Band calling it the same thing and it's the same music TSO is playing.  Nobody in front of my house seems to care.  So you seriously couldn't find one positive thing to say?

[JonB256]

I watched the Let it Go sequence (so far). I envy your house roofline. and I'll probably copy a few sequence ideas into my "still in progress" Let it Go.

Imitation = flattery !!!

[drlucas]

Here is my version of Carol of the Bells. It's more aligned to what Jim was saying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUkAqVAu7eQ&index=2&list=PLUW_HabuJxll_t38oqIl7KFXaA1_L16Xa

Now that aside....what Jon was saying around imitation = flattery, I take that one step further and get into laziness and ask for a copy of your xml files to see how you did some of those effects and to see if they can map onto my horizontal matrix or my whole house model

I had to watch the video a couple of times to see all the different models you have built up. The circle on the right hand side is a neat idea, but i'm just envious of the real estate you have to work with and the fact you have two trees - that gives you soo many capabilities. I would like to see your version of Dueling trees (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcV8ZgxE0g8&list=PLUW_HabuJxll_t38oqIl7KFXaA1_L16Xa&index=1)

Good job!!

[Gilrock]

You might not find what you're looking for in my XML files.  90% of the effects on my mega trees were done in Superstar because I created them last year before I was using xLights/NC.  I thought I mentioned it but it must have been on ACL that most of the mega tree sequences I purchased from Superstarlight.com.  Like the "Carol of the Bells" we are talking about is the 15th video down the page here:
http://www.superstarlights.com/Sequences/Videos.php

I own Superstar and can do a lot of that stuff and I have for a couple songs but usually I'm building props last minute and my sequencing is behind so I've bought 12 ribbon sequences.  For this year I copied data over from the 12 ribbon tree onto the mega tree on the left and I didn't even get the idea for the roofline leds until two weeks ago so I built them real quick and copied data from the arches.  So then I import my sequences from LOR and start overlaying Nutcracker effects so sometimes you will see the left megatree copying the right tree and then all of sudden be doing some NC effects.

Since I joined the xLights development team I'll be working on trying to add effects that look as nice as the Superstar effects.  Superstar really only has a few effects.  You can do static images, morphs, spirals, shockwave, and fans if I remember right.  What it does really nice though is allows you to layer several effects on the same model.  In xLights you are limited to 2 effects and there isn't an easy way to say have effect one for 5 seconds and effect 2 start 4 seconds into effect 1 to get the precise timing you may want.  I am just thinking whether you could use the whole house model feature to create a copy of a model to do this though but it wouldn't be as straightforward.  After version 4 comes out which I haven't seen yet I'll be looking to see whether overlapping effects on the same model is a possibility.

[Lights On Fifth]

You have a great canvas to work with, I like your oversize arches,tell me more about them size and pixels count, the only thing I was waiting for was the tail lights on three vehicles to jump in on the beat. 

[drlucas]

I did see your mention of Super Star lights....but never clicked what it really meant...thought you might have a sequence, bought it, then imported xlights and then adjusted (I used do that with HLS as I did papagayo effects there and then import into xlights - no need to do that anymore with the new import of pgo files!).

[Gilrock]

I provided a couple of the xLights xml files here:
http://www.coppercreeklights.com/sequences/2014/LetItGo_DMX.xml
http://www.coppercreeklights.com/sequences/2014/GanghamStyle_DMX.xml

If nothing else you can grab my timings I created in Audacity for Let It Go and that might help someone just starting on the song.  I was real quick with the labels just trying to add a word or two for knowing where in the song it was.  For GanghamStyle you can see how I mainly used xLights to add NC effects to the pixel tree on the left.  I have it do an effect and then you will see it have a "None, None" entry which lets it go back to run the imported LOR data.  My workflow this year got complex.  Sometimes I was working in Superstar and then exporting/importing into LOR.  Then I needed to copy data from the 12 ribbon tree to the 32 string megatree which only had 42 pixels and the ribbons had 50 so I had to truncate 8 pixels.  The worst part was the pixel tree had up/down layout and the ribbon tree was up/up so I had to use ItsMeBob's ClipboardFlipper to reverse every other ribbon when copying the data over.  Then I converted the LOR sequence into xLights and added NC effects.

The oversized arches have a story behind them.  Before I started doing DIY ribbons and pixels I bought 5 CCR's from LOR.  So the 4 arches and circle are still those CCRs.  Two years ago I started with 8 arches having each of 4 CCR's covering two arches apiece.  So the first 2 arches faced forward and the second 2 kinda went back into the yard along the sides.  This video shows my 2012 placement of the arches:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlZjcpvvsSI

So I didn't feel like the arches going back into the yard were very visible so I literally was out in the yard in 2013 setting up and got the idea to put two of my pvc pieces together and run the entire CCR on one arch so I would have two large arches facing forward on both sides of the yard.  After setting it up they really seemed to jump out at you so I kept it.  The setup is simple.  I pound a piece of rebar into the ground at an angle on both sides and slide the gray electrical conduit over the rebar.  I think I cut about a foot off of each 10' conduit so the total length is about 18' leaving a foot on each side so the 16' CCR doesn't go all the way to the ground.  I place the distance so that the arch is about 6' tall.  I check by seeing if it will barely touch my head when I walk under it.   It's amazing they stand up when you look at them cause if you tap the top it wiggles like crazy.  I just tie wrap the CCR's to the conduit.

[jnealand]

So you seriously couldn't find one positive thing to say?

I only watched that one sequence because I am looking for ideas for the, IMHO, more traditional Carol of the Bells by Monique Danielle.  I have never hear the TSO version called anything else.  Once I heard it was the wrong music I exited.  Just tried to tell you that it appeared to be wrongly labeled.  Sorry, didn't know you were fishing and did not want to know if something was wrong.  My bad.

[Gilrock]

Here's my xlights xml files which might help if you want to open my other files in a new directory:
http://www.coppercreeklights.com/sequences/2014/xlights_rgbeffects.xml
http://www.coppercreeklights.com/sequences/2014/xlights_networks.xml

[Gilrock]

So you seriously couldn't find one positive thing to say?

I only watched that one sequence because I am looking for ideas for the, IMHO, more traditional Carol of the Bells by Monique Danielle.  I have never hear the TSO version called anything else.  Once I heard it was the wrong music I exited.  Just tried to tell you that it appeared to be wrongly labeled.  Sorry, didn't know you were fishing and did not want to know if something was wrong.  My bad.

I normally don't go fishing this time of year.    I don't mind comments if something is wrong.  I still think that song is TSO's version of Carol of the Bells and I provided 2 other places that called it the same thing.  Sorry that I was in a mood last night where I had to prove I wasn't wrong...lol.  It was just that I worked for hours to create those videos yesterday and then after a couple hours that was the only comment I got.  But it's all good...today's a new day and I've onto building more props.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

[jnealand]

At least you have videos.  I tried to take some last night, but without a good camera I would not want to post what I have.  I'm now at v2 of my sequences and still need to do more tweaking.  At least v2 is more to my liking than v1 was.  The good news is that FPP works flawlessly.

[drlucas]

My videos are embarrassing but I put them up on youtube anyways.

I found a Hula hoop and have marked out 48 or so spots to start drilling to see if I can make a similar circle type prop. Why when it's 4 days to Christmas do I tempt Murphy with changing the display is beyond me but why not

I will perhaps try the electrical conduit idea and see if I can get it to take the right shape. I might only have the 90 degree corners left of that stuff in the garage...will have to check. Maybe tomorrow I'll stop at Home Depot and see if I can bend one in the store without getting kicked out first

[Gilrock]

For the circle I used the same gray conduit as the arches.  Get 1/2" size and it should be able to bend easily.  The electrical pvc comes with the coupling built right into the pipe so just figure out the length you need for your ribbon or string and add a few inches for going into the sleeve and cut it.  Then just bend it around and push it into the sleeve.  It should relax itself into a nice circle.